Chapter 2 Summary

News comes that TJ Avery will have his trial next month in Strawberry. As the children discuss the fate of their friend, each one reveals that he has no faith in the justice system. No jury would believe a black man's story over a white man's word.

Cassie starts thinking back to the night that TJ was almost lynched. The only thing that stops the mob from hanging him is the fire that suddenly breaks out in the Logans' own fields. It is while thinking back that Cassie reveals who set the fire: Papa. He does it to save TJ from the lynching, and nobody has ever discovered the truth.

After school, the children deliver the news of TJ's trial to their family, starting with Big Ma, their grandmother. "She is at her usual place at the stove," and she can instantly sense...